Need some time off...

Hey everyone! Well on Thursday I received a phone call with some very awful news. One of my Grandmothers passed away :( After several phone calls, moving around of budget funds and reservations, I finally know that the family and I are going out of state for the services and funeral.

So tomorrow I will be leaving. Before I go of course I wanted to let you guys know that I shall return and also leave you with 2 NOTDs I wore in the last couple of days.

So here are Zoya Ivanka and Zoya Mimi. Please excuse the shrinkage and not so great pictures.

Ivanka outdoors in the shade

Mimi outdoors in the shade

Well that's it from me for a while. I hope you're all doing well and in good health :)

So I'll be lighting my candle tonight :)

Well today's post is a special one for me. I don't know if any of you are aware, but today is a day for remembering our babies and/or pregnancies lost. As someone who lost a baby in utero a little over 3 years ago, this day is very near and dear to my heart. For the longest time I felt as if not speaking/writing about it would help me to forget it. But the truth is I felt so alone because I didn't share. Once I was finally able to speak about my pain, I saw that there's more people who've gone through the pain of losing a baby and/or pregnancy than I thought. Which, is really sad if you think about it. But it was comforting to know that all my feelings of uselessness, sadness, regret and pain were not feelings I felt alone.

There's actually a website dedicated to the awareness of 'remembering our babies' and if you're interested, you can view it here.

So in honor of the little boy I lost, I am lighting a candle at 7 p.m. and tried to interpret the light blue on my nails. I used OPI What's With The Cattitude? I then decided it needed a ribbon that I wasn't very good at freehanding. But I drew it on with American Apparel's Rose Bowl. Which also sort of backfired, because someone earlier thought this was a breast cancer manicure. Which to be honest, is cool. Not only is that another great thing to be aware of, but I thought it was very breast cancer like myself.

Plus, since I'm not very good at nail art and trying to put a second color on the ribbon would totally screw it up with my unsteady hands, I decided to leave it. I know what it means and that's really what counts, right?

Indoors

Outside in the shade

And here it is with the ribbon.

Also, I have to apologize for the leftover residue of Valerie in my cuticles. I did this lastnight and honestly could not see any leftover polish in my cuticles. Of course today I saw it when cropping my pictures, but by then I was too lazy to retake any pictures :(

I hope you are all doing well. And to anyone who has lost a baby and/or pregnancy, know you're not alone and it does get easier to get through the days :) Have a great weekend everyone and thanks for looking!

I could only hope for a stolen moment of her thoughts...

'Between the walk to the club and all the drinks she'll have in a crowded room, where everybody leaves too soon, I only hope that she remembers me!!!'

You know you love that song, don't lie! I remember jamming out to that song when I was in school! Haha, those were the good old days :p

Anyhow, yeah, meet Valerie. Valerie is gorgeous, but most importantly, she loves me. Not true you say? Well, if she didn't, then why is she here at my house, letting me spread her all over my fingernails? She'll be sleeping in my room everynight, too! Jealous? You should be! :p

No but in all seriousness, this is one gorgeous purple. I was most excited for Crystal from this collection, but seeing Valerie in real life changed my mind! If you love purples and/or are considering only getting some of the Fire & Ice collection, make sure Valerie is on your list! Here are a few pictures of her and a short video showing her off.

Indoors

In The Shade

In direct sunlight

Short video in direct sunlight

and just for fun, if you like the Material Issue song, here it is:

And that's it, I'm finally caught up to my pictures and done for the day! Woohoo! Thanks for sticking it out if you did. And I hope you guys have a great evening! I'll be back tomorrow morning :)

Comparison: OPI Reflecting Pool Vs. Zoya Crystal

OPI released a polish named Reflecting Pool I believe sometime last year? Regardless of the release time, I believe it was released exclusively in Europe and Asia. Which made it not only really expensive, but hard to find here in the states. Unless you have a buddy overseas willing to buy it and send it to you, you know?

Well now there's no need to either spend a lot to try to get it or try to convince your friends overseas to go nailpolish shopping for you! ;) Why? Well, because as many have suspected, it is true that Zoya's Crystal is a dupe for it. The only difference that I could tell really is that the Zoya seemed to be more pigmented. As in, I needed 3 coats to get the OPI to look like the Zoya did in 2 coats. So, not only a money saver, but a time saver as well :D

Anyhow, don't take my word for it! Check out the comparison pictures and video I made for you guys. Oh and one thing, please ignore the bubble and smudge on two of my nails, that'll teach me to try and put the camera battery back into the camera while my nails are still wet :(

Reflecting Pool on the left and Crystal on the right

Crystal is on my index and ring fingers while Reflecting Pool is on my pinky and middle finger.

Indoors without flash

Outside without flash

Regardless of having a twin out there, they're both beautiful aren't they? Alrighty, well, thanks for bearing with me if you've made it this far. I have one more post for you today and I'm just about done cropping the pictures. So thanks for sticking around and hope you guys are having a great time! :D

Zoya Haul and Nail Spoon Swatches :)

Hooray! So yesterday, after waiting what seemed like forever for my Zoya order, the mailman finally brought me my packages! :D I ordered on the 2nd (Saturday night), got a notice on Monday morning that most of my order shipped (Fire & Ice was backordered) and saw that my stuff was sent FedEx Smartpost. Ugh! More like FedEx SlowPokes. Either way, the very next day I get a ship notice for the Fire & Ice Collection. So finally, a little bit more than a week later, my new pretties are home with me!

I ordered:
Fire & Ice Collection
Zara
Meadow
Ivanka
Mimi

And got for free:
Remove + 2 oz
Lemon Dream Sugar Scrub 9 oz
Fire & Ice Spoons
Wicked & Wonderful Spoons
Shipping! LOL

Yeah, I'm one of those that likes to spend enough for free shipping if there isn't a code floating around :p Although, after having to wait so long, I think I might pay the extra cash next time so that my stuff doesn't go SmartPost again. Still, the sight of all these pretties after opening the boxes was wonderful! I'm not gonna lie, it made me forget about the pain and suffering I endured throughout the wait. Hey, I could have died! ;)

Now Pictures! All pictures were taken either in my lightbox or with what little afternoon light was coming through my window against the wall and without flash.

Ivanka, Meadow, Zara, Mimi

Tiffany, Gloria, Crystal

Lisa, Sarah, Valerie

Valerie and Mimi

Bottle comparison of Crystal and OPI's Reflecting Pool

Free Stuff and Spoon Swatches!!!

Tiffany, Gloria, Crystal

Lisa, Sarah, Valerie

Reflecting Pool, Crystal, Ivanka, Meadow, Zara, Mimi

Ivanka, Meadow, Zara, Mimi

Reflecting Pool, Crystal, Ivanka

Meadow, Zara, Mimi

Well, that concludes my haul post. Earlier today I did a photo and video comparison on my nails of Crystal and Reflecting Pool. So expect to see those as soon as I finish cropping and watermarking those pictures in just a little while here :) Stay tuned!

China Glaze Tarnished & Varnished

So, Tuesday I put this on for the first time since buying it. I fell in love! Wow. I've heard so much about the Martini Pedicure polishes. How they're living proof that China Glaze can do glass flecks like it's nobody's business. But I did not believe until now. Out of the set, I only kept 2. This one and Sass in a glass. This one seems to be the most pigmented of the Martini Pedicure set. The rest all still had VNL with 3 coats. This one is 2 coats and pure gorgeousness!

Here it is indoors without flash

Outdoors without flash

You know I suck at describing colors. But I could best describe this one as a coral with a tiny bit of pink. At times it looks pinker than red, at times it looks like an orange red more than pink. It's hard to describe really, but it's quickly winning my heart over :)

I'll be back with a haul and swatches for you guys in my next post! Thanks for reading :D

Offensive shrinkage, dry neglected hands, figs and multiple posts?!

Haha, so exactly what the title says is what you should expect for today! I'm not proud of myself. I must apologize in advance. But today is a catch up day. I took advantage of the long weekend and took a few extra personal days for myself. Before I knew it, the week is now almost over and I have a bunch of pictures that need cropping and watermarking :(

Which, is so easy, but so tedious. I hate it, really. Plus I take like millions of pictures only to toss most of them. So going through them is also a chore in itself. Anyhow, when I realized the date (14OCT) I realized that I have something planned for a post tomorrow. So I need to catch up today. And rather than make one massive post, I decided to cut them up by day and theme. Mainly I wanted to do this because for 2 manicures in a row my trusty Seche Vite failed me in a major way with shrinkage and globbing. Yeah, it's thickened and since I don't like using it after adding restore (it dulls it imo), I've been using it until I can get a replacement this weekend. So total nail fails. You'll just have to see it to believe it.

Anyhow, my first post will be Monday's manicure, which was Borghese's Amaretto Fig! One of my favorite colors ever, yet gloopy SV managed to make me hate it :( I actually attempted to crop out some of the shrinkage but I'm no good at editing pictures, so please try not to suffer too much through the dryness and shrinkage.

Indoors without flash - Not really a looker, huh? Just wait!

The rest of these are in direct sunlight without flash.

Isn't that just beautiful? This is one of my favorite 'wolf in sheep's clothing' type colors. Indoors it looks totally unremarkable, but put this baby in some sunlight and look at how wild she can be at different angles! This color actually reminds me of autumn leaves. I miss having trees, stupid desert landscaping :( Alrighty, well look for 2 or 3 more posts for today from me. Hopefully you guys all have Amaretto Fig and will be sporting it more often this fall ;)